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‘The dressing room is full of good lads’

Per Mertesacker believes Arsenal’s strength in depth has helped the Club make an impressive start this season.

The centre half has been in commanding form and produced another solid performance in Saturday’s win at West Ham after returning to the side after illness.

Mertesacker is happy with his own form and says that competition for places is bringing out the best in the squad.

“The manager told us before the start of the season that we have a lot of good centre backs and he is convinced we can make the team stronger because we have a lot of these good players in every position,” Mertesacker said.

“"The manager said he would change sometimes and I think that's great for our development. We have to keep concentrating on our game, which is what we did here in the second half.

"As centre backs, we are all delighted to play and see our improvement. Me personally, I would like to have a better season without injuries, which will make the difference.”

The German was left on the bench for last week’s defeat to Chelsea, but he insists there were no hard feelings on his part.

"The dressing room is full of good lads, we are looking forward to every game,” Mertesacker said.

“All of the subs who came in were fantastic and we have a great squad, we can feel the confidence rising.

"When anyone comes into the team we wish them the best of luck and that's the best way to be for the whole season.”

Copyright 2016 The Arsenal Football Club plc. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source

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